In the 6 months it’s been since I went off chocolate for good, it’s taken me roughly 5 months and 3 weeks to acquire a taste for carob.

Let’s face it. For those accustomed to eating chocolate (read as: normal people), carob is a little icky on the first try. And maybe the second try. And third try.

But something magical happens around that fourth or fifth try. Some sort of mysterious connection is forged between your taste buds and your dopamine centers, and all of a sudden you find yourself waking up in the middle of the night thinking, “I could really go for a carob chip cookie right now.”

This overnight conversion is at once a bizarre and wondrous experience. But in order to reach that point, you need to give carob a fighting chance at winning you over. Which is why I present this pie for your approval.

After last week’s VegNews twitter chat about accommodating food allergies in vegan baking and cooking, I felt the need to acknowledge and celebrate my own allergies somehow. And while it’s not free of ALL of the top 8 — it still contains soy and gluten — I’d like to think it’s a noble effort, and a fitting way to reward myself after my first six months off the go go juice. If nothing else, it makes the thought of staying caffeine-free for the rest of my natural born life feel a little less daunting.

This recipe is inspired by one I had the good fortune to find on the back of a bag of Sunspire carob chips. Before then, it had never occurred to me to work carob into a pie, even though chocolate pudding pie was my ULTIMATE favorite pie growing up. I have to say that this stuff rivals the allergen-ridden version my hardcore southern grandmother used to make.

It’s cool, it’s creamy, and it won’t give you a migraine. Isn’t it time to give carob a second chance?

ingredients

1 10oz pkg carob chips (about 1 3/4 c) *
1 14oz pkg extra firm silken tofu
1/2 c vanilla soy yogurt
1/4 c agave
1 prepared graham cracker pie shell

directions

1. In a double boiler (I used the glass-bowl-on-top-of-a-pot method) melt your carob chips. Once melted, stir in agave and remove from heat.
2. Using a blender or food processor, puree tofu and yogurt until very smooth and creamy.
3. Add tofu mixture to melted carob and use an electric mixer to thoroughly combine.
5. Pour into prepared pie shell and chill, covered, for at least 6 hours — preferably overnight.

* If you REALLY can’t stand carob, you could probably sub regular chocolate chips without a problem. I haven’t tried this, obviously, so let me know how it works out for you.